pedroquintela

A Little of Magic

Canon EOS 6D

settings

Aperture 4/1 ISO 100 Shutter 1/10 Focal Length 17/1

upload_date

Aug, 2016

Views

1734

Likes

+267

Awards

Honorable Mention in Cool Houses Photo Contest

Peer Award

+481

Top Choice

$kazimierzfrackowski$

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Superb Composition

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Absolute Masterpiece

+11

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Outstanding Creativity

Superior Skill

Genius

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

Relaxed

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Behind The Lens

Location

Monsanto, Portugal, a historic village that has the peculiarity of have been built within massive boulders. It´s a location that I visit during the 4 seasons trying to get the best mood out of it. The sunset and night are among my favorite timings due to the colors that make contrast with the rugged boulders and the stone houses.

Time

It was shot after the sunset, when the blue hour was making his appearance.

Lighting

It was shot after the sunset, when the last colors of the sky were still there and the blue hour was appearing. At the same time I waited for the lamp post to be lighten to have shadows, contrast and that yellow cast over the scene. Somehow it make it more appealing to the senses. I was pay great deal of importance to the light and always try to use natural light or, when artificial, the existent one on the location. That is also possible because I use a Full Frame body that allows me to push for the shadows in post processing, getting some nice dynamic range out of the raw files. On this particular my settings were: 17mm/ƒ/4/10s/ISO 100

Equipment

Canon 6d Canon EF 17-40 L Tripod Manfrotto 055XProb Feisol 40-D ball head Bag Lowepro Flipside 300

Inspiration

Helen Keller wrote once that "the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart". That´s what I felt on my last trips to Monsanto. In this occasion I intend to capture, at sunset, a scene in the village that I called "Bowler Street". Stood there until get the proper mood and light. I hope you can feel a little of what I experienced. Currently my line of work is all about storytelling, sparking some kind of emotions and connections with the viewer, because I need that feedback to feel motivating to carry on. In this case the natural frame made by the big boulders, the light on the background and the house on the left were simply irresistible, like it was from a movie still. Since I´m a historian, historical locations have a deep impact in me. Beside that I have an intense attachment to this location. It´s magical to me and balances me very much visiting it and talking to his inhabitants. So it was a no brainer to me.

Editing

I always do post-processing on my images, since I shoot exclusively in raw and want to get the most out of the situation. In my case I feel indispensable to open my images and create the feeling that I felt when I shot it. In my case I my post processing tools are an iMac 5k, a Wacom Pro tablet, with Adobe Lightroom and PhotoShop, depending of the level of interaction that I want with my image. Here I did my usual workflow, accentuate the shadows and highlights, give a little of punch to the yellows and blues. Corrected the perspective, remove some little purple fringing.

In my camera bag

Many of us pay a lot of attention to the equipment. I was a gear freak since a long time but, slowly, I began to pay more attention to the technique itself and less to the gear. Though, my current equipment is totally focus on my actual line of work - storytelling. My main body is a Canon 6d, witch I love because it´s a light Full Frame, a little old school in format, but with some features that are very handy as the built in wi-fi and gps. The dynamic range and image quality at higher ISO where decisive when I bought it about 2 and half years ago. I love this camera. On the lenses side I use currently on Canon EF: 16-35 F4 IS, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F 1.8, 70-200 F.4 IS Since I also shoot landscapes I use an array of filters graduated and solid from the Hitech Formatt brand - 0,6/ 0,9/ 1.2 and 10 stops. Also a polarizer. I have also 2 remotes, one with cord and another wireless from Canon, in case I get out of battery in one. A couple microfiber cloths are always with me, as well as 3 LP-E6 batteries and a dust blower. When the situation needs it I use the Canon BG-E13 Battery Grip, quite useful on portraits due to the duplication of commands. Last I have a Canon 430EX II flash with a couple of triggers. But it´s not very used since I prefer going on the side of natural light and explore it.

Feedback

The first of all is studying the scenario, in particular the light during the day and how it performs at several apertures. In this case my problem was to have the proper light from the lamp post, the colors in the sky matching. So I waited 2 months since my first try. Another big thing is getting a proper focal length. In this case I doubt about a 14mm and 17mm (I sold both lenses some months ago). The first one was brighter (F/2.8) but the distortion on the foreground rocks was massive and in post processing it wouldn´t have been easy to be made. So I choose the 17mm. Another advice is to get the minimum ISO possible, that way the noise wouldn´t be an issue to solve and you can go a little further when pushing the shadows as I love to do. Finally use your intuition and heart when doing this kind of scenes. Don´t think about stressful things, enjoy the moment and try your best to bring home something that you are proud of, despite your level of expertise. As I always say to my peers and followers, happy shooting!

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pedroquintela

pedroquintela

A Little of Magic

Behind The Lens

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